Abstract

There was an accident to a helicopter during ground run on July 28, 2008 wherein one upper and lower blade collided with each other resulting in the other blades colliding with fuselage/rotor column. Post accident inspection revealed severe damage to the helicopter. A few suspected components retrieved from the wreckage of the helicopter were sent to the laboratory for establishing the mode/cause of failure. Examination revealed that all the components have failed by overload or impact. In many cases, the loads were superimposed with bending. None of the components showed any signatures of progressive failure such as stress corrosion cracking or fatigue. The evidences present on the components, based on which this conclusion has been arrived, are presented in this report.